Estevao scored a late winner for Chelsea to condemn Liverpool to their third defeat in a row.

Cody Gakpo thought he had rescued a draw with his close-range effort after the Premier League champions went behind to a sensational Moises Caicedo strike after 14 minutes.

But Estevao scored his first goal for the London club in the 95th minute after Enzo Fernandez and Marc Cucurella combined on the left-hand side, and the latter aimed an excellent low cross across the six-yard box.

The result means Liverpool are a point behind Arsenal — who were 2-0 winners over West Ham earlier in the day — at the top of the table. Chelsea move up to sixth.

Here, our writers break down the key talking points.

Caicedo: Another stunner

Caicedo does not really do tap-ins when it comes to scoring for Chelsea. His stunning effort, which put Chelsea ahead in the 14th minute, is the latest in his collection — not that the Ecuador international is a regular on the scoresheet.

Caicedo got off the mark in the final Premier League game of the 2023-24 season when he lobbed Bournemouth keeper Neto, David Beckham style, from the halfway line. It was so good that Chelsea fans voted it as the club’s goal of the season.

There were a mighty two goals in 2024-25. This included a great volley from the edge of the area against Manchester United to get a point. He also sealed the 4-1 victory in the Conference League Final against Real Betis with a fine strike into the corner.

STAMFORD BRIDGE HAS ERUPTED!! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/EkbagdV0qh

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 4, 2025

(For readers in U.S.)

A MIGHTY HIT BY MOISES CAICEDO GIVES CHELSEA THE LEAD OVER LIVERPOOL. 💥 pic.twitter.com/giYiLyBaK0

— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) October 4, 2025

By finding the top corner against Liverpool, he has already topped his personal best in a Chelsea shirt for a single campaign with three. Before this, there was a neat finish at West Ham and a stunner at Brentford last month more in keeping with the standard he has set.

This is arguably the best of the lot; it was certainly scored in the biggest game. He has a history with Liverpool, of course, because he turned them down in favour of a then-Premier League record move to Chelsea in 2023.

Liverpool fans taunted him when they played in May because they had won the Premier League by then. They had a good view of why missing out on Caicedo could still be considered a bit of a blow, even though they have assembled a brilliant midfield regardless.

Simon Johnson

Liverpool mistakes led to goal

The way Liverpool started this match hinted that they wanted to right the wrongs from defeats to Crystal Palace and Galatasaray. They moved the ball through the thirds at pace but with precision, finding Cody Gakpo in favourable positions while Conor Bradley, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister were positive in possession.

But a collection of errors led to Caicedo’s opener.

As Reece James sent a lofted clearance forward down Liverpool’s left, Virgil van Dijk followed it under no pressure, even signalling for Giorgi Mamardashvili to come out to collect it. Ibrahima Konate and Milos Kerkez had pushed up earlier in the move, giving Van Dijk limited options.

Mamardashvili staying within his penalty box meant Van Dijk waited for Konate to retreat, which prompted Joao Pedro to apply some pressure. The Liverpool captain passed back to his goalkeeper, whose return pass was too heavy to control and resulted in a throw-in.

As Chelsea built from the throw-in, Dominik Szoboszlai, who had shadowed Caicedo well up to that point, let him escape into space and receive a pass. That forced Mac Allister to step out of his position and jump in to make a tackle that Caicedo skipped past. Malo Gusto then dragged Van Dijk away to open up shooting room for the Ecuadorian on the edge of the box. He responded with an excellent strike.

The moment took the wind out of Liverpool’s sails. Passes went astray, touches were heavy and frustrations grew. Chelsea settled into a structure that allowed limited chances in the remainder of the first half, barring an Alexander Isak header from a Mohamed Salah cross.

Anantaajith Raghuraman

Case for the defence

Beating Liverpool is always a great thing, but it will taste even sweeter for Chelsea under these circumstances. Facing the champions without several key players, including star man Cole Palmer, already put Chelsea at a major disadvantage.

Maresca’s side were particularly weakened at centre-back, too, with Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Levi Colwill and Tosin all unavailable. That meant Josh Acheampong, making just the fourth Premier League start of his career, was partnered with Benoit Badiashile in the middle of Chelsea’s defence. Badiashile has only just returned from three months out due to a muscular injury.

Whether the lack of regular game time played a part remains to be seen, but both men had to go off in the second half. It looked like they may have added to the injured list when they both went off in the second half. However, they did not go down the tunnel for treatment. Instead, they sat in the dug-out, suggesting it was something minor.

It still left Chelsea with the unusual sight of right-back Reece James playing centre back, first next to Acheampong and then alongside 19-year-old summer signing Jorrel Hato.

Chelsea looked far from comfortable at the back, but despite being up against Liverpool’s expensive strikeforce, they managed to keep them down to one goal. Perhaps that is a big reason why the Chelsea fans were happy with what they saw even before Estevao’s stunning winner in added time.

If they can show character like this by beating the champions, then they can really make their mark when all the players are at their disposal.

Simon Johnson

How did Mamardashvili do?

Making your Premier League debut away at Stamford Bridge is always a daunting prospect, and after Alisson’s injury against Galatasaray, it was what awaited Liverpool’s Giorgi Mamardashvili.

The 25-year-old has been signed as the Brazilian’s long-term replacement and it is these types of games at tough away grounds against the top six where he will be needed most. Replacing Caoimhin Kelleher, who was an excellent backup, carries its own pressure too. 

(Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)

Shot-stopping is the goalkeeper’s strongest attribute, and he showed it with two saves in quick succession to deny first Jamie Gittens and then Estevao – the second in particular was superb – in the closing stages. But he also learnt about the quality of finishing in the Premier League as he could only get a hand to Caicedo’s opening goal. 

It is his distribution which is more of a question mark.  Mamardashvili was composed in possession, but on one occasion he did try to overplay, and it eventually led to Chelsea’s opener.

But with Alisson set to miss time after the international break, this was a good foundation to build on.

Andrew Jones

Another late loss for Liverpool

How the tables have turned. After being the kings of late goals, Liverpool have become the recipient of last-minute losses.

For the second consecutive Premier League game, Arne Slot’s side found a way back into the game after not playing well, only to lose in stoppage time. It was Eddie Nketiah last week. This week, it was Estevao who found himself with enough space at the back post to score. 

This has been a terrible week for Liverpool as they suffered a third successive defeat and, after equalising, they did not control the game. They continue to look disjointed and are not functioning. 

There are a lot of problems for Slot to solve during the upcoming international break. They have allowed a five-point lead to become a one-point deficit to new league leaders Arsenal.

Andrew Jones

What did Willy Caballero say?

Speaking for Maresca, who was sent off for his late celebrations, the Chelsea assistant was asked if Maresca has caught his breath after running 50 yards to celebrate: “No, he’s OK, he’s OK. He was so happy after the game. Unfortunately, he cannot be here because of the card, but he was so happy and he wanted me to do the press conference, but also he wanted me to praise the players because of the effort that they’ve done today. We believe that we deserve the victory after the chances that we created and how we played. Thanks to football and thanks for the effort of the players, we scored in the last second and we got the three points today.”

Is the reason for Enzo being that animated due to the significance of the victory?I believe it’s because not just this week, but a few weeks that we’ve been holding our emotions because the last couple of games we’ve been playing well, but we finished a few games with 10 players and we couldn’t win the game. Today was really important, but at the same time we finished with a back four that is not usual, four full-backs. The players did it really well, the players on the bench were ready to go and ready to play. They did a really good effort, they played in different positions.”

Will you get Enzo to pay a fine for his red card? “He’s always paying many things for us. So in this case, we cannot say nothing for him, but for sure we’re going to have a dinner and we’re going to talk about it. Because I don’t want to do the press conference for many games.”

Has there been a case of holding Estevao back at times in the Premier League? “It’s not just Estevao. We are doing a great job with many of the players because a lot of them are young.

“So it’s something that, thanks to him playing football, we know that a young player can suffer when he moves from another country to settle down here and to play for this club. So the players, first of all, are doing a great job to involve all the new players. And when we have the chance, we work. I can speak with him most of the time in Spanish because he understands. And he’s a really good kid. And we are so happy for him because he needs it, we need it, and he needs a goal as well.”

How are Benoit Badiashile and Josh Acheampong? “The two central defenders, it was just prevention (taking them off). Because they made a great effort today, but just prevention. We spoke with them already and they said that they are OK, so good for us. About Moi (Caicedo), what can we say? He’s been playing a lot of games. Last season, the Club World Cup, the national games with Ecuador. And yeah, we need to manage sometimes because we want him to arrive well to the games.”

What did Slot say?

On taking Konate off: “I don’t know if it’s a big injury but I know he limped a little bit. He said he felt his quad. For me, alarm bells go on because you never know if with another sprint how that’s going to go.” (Full quotes here).

On the third defeat in a row: “(It’s) another disappointing loss, that’s clear. In the first half we didn’t play our best football but still created three big chances. They only had one and scored it.

“Our second half performance I liked. We created more than enough chances to score more than one goal. There was a period of the game where I felt ‘now we’re going to win it’. We came close several times but in the last 10 minutes it was end to end and both teams could have won it. We didn’t, Chelsea did.”

What next for Chelsea?

Saturday, October 18: Nottingham Forest (Away), Premier League, 12.30pm UK, 7.30am ET

What next for Liverpool?

Sunday, October 19: Manchester United (Home), Premier League, 4.30pm UK, 11.30am ET

 (Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)